


A Vacation (ish)

by AngeNoir



Series: Inktober 2017 [11]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: (waaay before the fall of overwatch), Family Feels, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Mythical Beings & Creatures, Pre-Fall of Overwatch, Team as Family, Vacation, mer-creatures, mermaid, merman
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-12
Updated: 2017-10-12
Packaged: 2019-01-16 09:37:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12340116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngeNoir/pseuds/AngeNoir
Summary: Jack really just wanted to get Gabriel to relax.Inktober Drabble 11 = Universe: Overwatch / List: Anthropomorphic Creatures / Prompt: The Shark





	A Vacation (ish)

**Author's Note:**

> Written for inktober, based on the prompt "The Shark" from an Anthropomorphic Characters list. (You can see [and prompt me!] my initial post about my inktober writings [here](http://outercorner.tumblr.com/post/165938959460/so-i-am-gonna-be-trying-this-inktober-thing-but).)

It was something Jack had always wanted to see, but never thought he would - Gabriel, sprawled out like a lazy cat on the lounge chair by the pool,  _relaxed_  for the first time Jack could remember in his entire time of knowing Gabriel.

That black skin gleamed like copper in the sun, and Jack leaned forward, almost giving into the impulse to run a hand down Gabriel’s chest, trail his tongue over the rippling muscle and curves of Gabriel’s body.

“Eyyy,  _jefe_!”

\- Except that Gabe had insisted on bringing the kids.

They weren’t really Gabe’s kids, of course, but they were the closest things that Gabe had, and he was fiercely protective of them. To be fair, Gabe had really bent the rules to bring them in. Both of them had been underage (at least, to join Overwatch; they had been old enough to go to prison like adults), and even now, at a lanky and reckless twenty-two and twenty, they were the two of Gabe’s Blackwatch operatives he fussed over the most.

Which was why they were here, in Greece, at a nice resort that has the added benefit of being completely private. They weren’t far from Gibraltar - within a couple hours’ travel on a drop ship - and it might not be a real ‘vacation,’ but Jack had told Ana to handle the rest of the day, and the weekend, and they’d be back in on Monday. It had actually been a lot easier to convince her and Reinhardt to handle Overwatch than it was to convince Gabriel to also take off the rest of the Friday so that he could take him on this mini vacation.

“ _Jefe_!” The kid was wading closer in the pool, staying conspicuously in the shallow end, and the cyborg wasn’t even chancing the water.

(Probably for the best.)

The cyborg muttered something in Japanese, making the kid laugh, head thrown back and brown hair plastered against his head and neck. Strong brown arms lifted him out of the water and the kid snatched up a towel, rubbing his shaggy hair thoroughly. “ _Jefe_ , you gon’ sleep the day ‘way?”

Gabriel opened one eye - Jack loved those golden eyes, the way that he only had to glance through the slits of his eyes to make a point - and pinned McCree with a look. “I’m here instead of handling the Smythesson op. I’m tryin’ not to stress. Piss off.”

His voice was a deep rumble, and Jack tried very hard to hide behind his sunglasses, to keep his intense interest hidden, since he had really just wanted to take Gabriel away for the weekend.

The cyborg jerked his chin and spoke again in rapid-fire Japanese. Jack knew Mandarin, but not Japanese, and so he huffed a little and folded his arms, sitting back in his lounge chair.

That caught Gabriel’s eye, and he looked at Jack speculatively before grunting. “You two need to get out more, if you think this is luxurious. But it ain’t bad. Bet you’re hungry.”

“I could do with a bite,” Shimada muttered, voice lightly accented.

McCree dumped the towel on the back of Gabriel’s chair and grinned down, wide and happy. “Boss, you oughter know you can’t just tell us to get out more an’ then send us off.”

“I’m trusting you. You’re an adult now, aren’t you?”

McCree paused, eyes searching. “You - mean it?”

“You got a good head on your shoulders, provided you use it,” Gabriel said begrudgingly. “Act like it, and you’ll be fine. I’m not bailing you idiots out of some local jail.”

Slyly, Shimada said something in Japanese that had McCree snorting and Gabriel’s eyes opening fully to pin the cyborg with a terrifying glare.

Showing he had some level of self-preservation, Shimada danced away, quick and light on his feet, beckoning to McCree. “Come, before he decides our leash should be tight.”

Still, McCree hesitated, hovering nervously near Gabriel, but Gabriel had closed his eyes again and so, slowly, McCree made his way to the door where Shimada waited impatiently.

When they were gone, Jack pulled his chair closer to Gabriel’s. “Now that they’re gone...” he said suggestively, hoping.

“You,” Gabriel said, voice deliberate in the way that normally elicited a, well, a  _visceral_  reaction. “They are gone, and I don’t have to hear Jesse poking fun at Genji anymore, or hear Genji get more and more creative with his curses. Instead, I can lie here in the sun and try not to think about how badly Richardson can fuck up my op.”

Well, if Gabriel was going to be like  _that_...

With a sigh, Jack stood up, taking his shirt off and dropping it onto the lounge. Slipping off his sandals, he jumped into the pool and began swimming back and forth.

Back on the farm in Indiana, he had loved to swim, and now that he was a graduate of the SEP program, his stamina was ridiculous. After a while, though, swimming got boring, and so Jack folded up, sinking like a rock to the bottom and staring up at the brilliant sun refracting across the water.

Suddenly, without warning, there was a huge splash, and Jack whirled around to see a huge, hulking shape barreling down at him. He caught a brief look of dark, rubbery skin, a mouth with too many teeth, golden eyes flashing, fins cutting sharply through the water. Something slammed into Jack’s gut, drove him through the water at such high speed that Jack was literally  _lifted_  up out of the water and thrown onto the concrete.

Coughing, trying to figure out what the hell happened, he turned to see a long, humanoid body with a powerful shark tale lashing the water, deep grey-brown skin scarred and rough, arms with sharp fins protruding from the back of the arms.

“What the hell, Morrison?” Gabriel snarled from the monster’s mouth.

Jack opened his mouth and then closed it, staring at the terrifying creature before him, until he could finally croak out, “You’re rubbery.”

Gabriel heaved himself out of the water, and it was highly disturbing to see Gabriel’s skin writhe and heave until he was kneeling on the concrete, skin still rippling a little, and glowering at Jack. “ _That’s_  what you’re worried about? You went under and didn’t come back up!”

Abruptly, Jack felt bad. Gabriel had acute paranoia and a truckload of issues that could not be treated with the standard medicine since the SEP program fucked with their brain chemistry. Still -

“You know that I’d be fine. We’re safe here, Gabriel.”

“Easy for you to say,” Gabriel huffed, but he was beginning to tremble. “It’s bad enough that I don’t think Richardson can handle this shit -- “

“Why is he your second in command, then?” Jack asked.

“He’s not, Zhao is, but she’s in Brazil at the moment. Normally I could feel better knowing Jesse is there; he’s got a decent head for strategy on his shoulders, and Genji makes him braver - but Jesse is here.”

Jack folded his arms. “I didn’t ask them to come, Gabe, that was  _you_.”

Gabriel looked uncomfortable, glancing down at the ground. “They’re - they’re kids, Jackie. They need a break. They’ve been cooped up in Blackwatch, which is full of really the shit of Overwatch, and you know it. Hell, Jesse has been with me almost since I became head of Blackwatch. They don’t - they needed a break more than me. And I need them to start getting used to reintegrate with casual society. How else will they be able to have a life beyond Blackwatch?”

Jack stared at Gabriel a moment before moving over to Gabriel’s side, wrapping an arm around Gabriel. “You’re a good person, Gabe. You know it, I know it. But you got to try and relax. Give yourself a break.” He paused, and then shook Gabriel, just a bit. “Also, a giant fish-person?”

“Yeah, man, my family - my family’s weird. I hate water, but my race is correct on my official personnel file. I’m mer-kin. A great white.”

“I see that, now,” Jack muttered. “Jesus.”

Blowing out a long breath, Gabriel shook his head a little and then smiled. It was one of those fake smiles, a smile that meant that Gabriel was trying to pretend he was fine, or at least would push his own issues aside so he could be fine. “It’s why I don’t like water that much; it’s hard to be in that form and remember what I need to. But I do need to relax. You wanna get back into the water?”

For a moment, the only thing Jack wanted to say was  _yes_ , but he knew the value of compromise. Instead, he offered, “Or... we could head back to the hotel room, test out the solidity of my bed?”

Gabriel’s smile grew more genuine, and he snatched up Jesse’s clothes and towel. “You’re on, Jackie-O.”


End file.
